Probing fundamental physics from the driest places on earth with superconducting sensors
In recent years measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropies have enabled
precise characterization of the lambda-CDM standard model of cosmology. The Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT)
and South Pole Telescope (SPT) are now extending those measurements to arcminute angular scales and discovering
high-redshift sources and galaxy clusters through the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect. We will compare the locations
of and some recent results from these instruments. The ACT and SPT measurements were enabled by the development
of large superconducting transition-edge sensor (TES) detector arrays. We are now developing feedhorn-coupled
TES polarimeter arrays for CMB research. These polarimeters will be deployed later this year in the Atacama
B-mode Search, which will search for the signature of inflationary gravitational waves, probing physics at
energy scales inaccessible on earth. Starting in 2012, the polarimeters will also be used in new receivers for
ACT and SPT. In addition to probing the physics of inflation, these experiments will measure the gravitational
lensing of the CMB. The lensing measurements are predicted to provide the first measurement of the sum of the
neutrino masses as well as to characterize the matter power spectrum at z~3, which will improve dark energy
constraints from optical surveys. We will highlight some of the differences between the future plans for these
instruments.